One of the goals Governor Dennis Daugaard shared with lawmakers and a state-wide radio and TV audience Tuesday is to find ways to slow prison population growth. Daugaard says at current rates, the state will have to build two new prisons in the next several years. The governor says one program that could ease the prison burden comes from Hawaii. The HOPE program works similarly to South Dakota’s 24-seven Sobriety program, with illegal drug offenders taking part.
As Daugaard explains, "Each morning, participating offenders must call an automated drug testing hotline, which will inform them whether they have been selected that day to submit to a drug test. Failure to show for their drug test will trigger automatic jail time. Failing the drug test will trigger automatic jail time. Hawaii has used the HOPE program on hundreds of meth addicts, and has seen a remarkable degree of success. The offenders in HOPE have been 55 percent less likely to be arrested for a new crime. And they’re 72 percent less likely to use drugs."
Daugaard developed a corrections work group last year to look at prison population increases and come up with ways to reduce the rapid growth. He told lawmakers most prisoners are incarcerated for non-violent crimes, and new ways to correct their behaviors would save the state money in the long run.